Our Flag Still Flies – War Of Rebellion

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Part Nine: Cold Shoulder

LONG AWAITED RETURN!!

A drugged rest had greeted him, and whispering voices. Richard's eyes never cracked, the haze like a daydream and lucid as one. The voices were of two men, until a muttered name had the boy shift in his sheets whilst he barely opened and eye and took a listen.

"He's in no condition to –

"This is serious, Wintergreen. If that noble even thinks he can stand against me and my Ravagers…he needs more reason to stand at attention."

"He knows your secret, partly." Wintergreen huffed and seemed to be distraught even as a service hand for the General. "What if he takes that information to his Rebellion? You can't keep his memory intact. You'd be making not only your downfall easier, but Cobb may even –

"Cobb wants him malleable." The General supposedly rubbed his chin and paced, not paying mind to the body in the sheets. Unmoving to them, but yet still well enough alive. "I have to make him into a soldier; Ra's army is growing in number and it won't be long before the first strike –

"What of the Court??" Wintergreen exclaimed, jabbing fingers up at the taller other. "They've entrusted you with weaning that boy into his new role. If he should remain rebellious you'll have to send him to Cobb and forfeit the task."

"NEVER." The General growled out under his tongue. "I never leave a job half way through. You know me best, Will."

"That I do, yet he tests you and won't comply. You are his, captor and yet he tried to kill himself. How long, sir?" Wintergreen wondered. "How long before his words and actions won't become questionable to our goals of uniting the places you wish to rule over with that fist of iron?"

They did not speak, and Richard wondered himself if he had a reason to fight – how he'd be searching for Korina….and Bruce. He had to be in a dungeon or…who was this Ra's? The man from the visit to their home and his daughter? The ones in the rows above….

At the Council Hall. Richard scrunched his brows up in deep contemplation. How could the General not…be at ease with the Demon Head's clan to the East?

"If he can be reared as I've done for my own children, he might capture the attention of even his Lord Wayne."

Richard gasped, a hand over his lips as boots shuffled quickly over to the bed. His eyes opened; the General looked feverishly upset. "Eavesdropping!" William threw up his arm in protest. "This is what I mean, sir. He's unable to –

"Boy. Did you hear us speaking. Tell the truth."

Richard shifted. The nausea waning since the drug in jim made the boy's throat far too dry to worry about things so minor as stomach pains. "I…woke only a minute after, you spoke of Cobb. I won't lie….I wo –

"This is serious, Robin." The man behind Slade spoke up." The General has plans for the two sects. Only you know too much."

"Punish me then." Richard said with his wings at the moment quite clipped. "I don't want to remember what was uttered."

"That can be arranged, sire?"

Slade looked over the former noble soul. Then, he shook his head. Will gawked, yet to his own way he went, huffing by the General's callous decision to go easy on the little traitor.

When it was just them, Slade finally spoke. "You saw what I am, my secret. And what I'd expected of you once you were aware of your role.

"There is a problem with your with; if you can't be useful, you're not going to save anyone."

Richard looked to the windowless room and took in a breath. "I have only to sacrifice what I can for the good to flourish in us all. I am no martyr, but you have made me choose."

"No, I did not." The General moved to the boy's bedside. "If you are what Cobb wants, it will break you. I rather enjoy your spirit. It speaks in volumes, competitive and persuasive at times. There is an option I'd grant; if you hold secrets to unifying the countries and cities I require to salvage –

"I won't allow Lord Wayne's efforts to go to waste." Snapped the teen. "Korina's freedom. That and my rebels. We are family, you can't have that."

"And I never wanted it, actually."

Richard's brow now rose. "I wanted you. Not them, and I would gladly return Lady Korinna IF." The General stretched out his arm and fingers went to the boy's cheek, a rough thumb to his pale face. "If you were to help me to save what the Demon might very well destroy and enslave."

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Richard backed away from the hand. Not he, then…. was the General lying? He could be. They…they all did that!

"You've not done that as well?"

"His rule is as a mystic, boy." The General rise and moved across the floor. "If you are so close to Wayne, then maybe we can help one another. I only wanted you to see my as more than what the rebels believe. I am no monster; I live and breathe as you."

"An immortal. The nameless magic?" Richard scoffed and forced his eyes to look the dead king's way. "You have no such abilities?"

"An elixir long ago." The General said quickly. "It was, a difficult time. But I know what Wayne could not stop. He was in fact close as I was to Ra's allegiance."

"The demon is just in myth to us. It does not –

"His mistress was cursed by it. So too her father."

Richard bit his lip, wondering if Talia was in fact possessed by a monster. "Then, the Council has heard of it?"

"They are in connection; which is why I have Alexi to see to it that we are not powerless….should Ra's have his wishes be granted."

"Magic?" The boy looked on in disbelief and such confusion scattered his once confident stance. He stood, walking in a mild wobble to the fireplace. "General. You must not be telling me. Why am I here? Cobb wants me, yet why do you not wish that then? Are you….ate you protect-

"You are my advantage towards winning this war, Grayson Son."

Richard gawked at the name. "That use is…I'm a Wayne now."

"You were ways what the Court decided. That is why I want us both to be freed of them. To unify what Wayne and the Knights could not."

"You want my…. allegiance. Then, you want me to help you rule it over? To sway the masses to war?? I'm not blind. I know…. I wanted to stop that same war from coming."

"At what cost, noble son." The general let the fire flicker on. Between them, their faces were half lit by the flames' glow. "If you swear to serve my rule. To be at my hand when the council should have you branded anything but useful to the downfall if their plans, I shall grant protection to the people and return Korina to you once Project Starfire is done."

Richard gritted his fists. "She's fragile. She'd never allow you to harm this world with your conquests and squabbling…. men of power…they should not play gods!!"

"This is not a contest, but the fate of what ends with whomever gains what they desire…that will mean an even greater sacrifice, Grayson Son." The General stood taller over top, his racing heart was still, while Richard could feel that dragon's breath leaving himself distraught. He did not panic, he was angry. He didn't know what Lord Wayne…

"You have a record of his authority. His secrets and his tactics." Slade soon spoke. "Granted that you are present and will reveal yourself as his successor, Cobb cannot then touch you under my protection. If so, you may then be able to increase the hope in your people. As I allow."

"Use….as a figurehead, a puppet?" Richard stepped back; his legs too weak to be this stable. "That was your plan." He caught himself against an arm chair. "You…you won't have it. His secrets."

"Then, his connections. His tactics for peace."

"You'd warp them to your ways!" Protested the teen. "I can't betray my father –

"He is with the Demon's Head, because his only son by blood is there!!"

Richard fell to his knees at those words. His eyes stricken by betrayal. His father…then…Talia? Was it her child??

"That…. he would never –

"It was done in secret. He now has responsibility to see to that child becoming no one's ruler. But soon, he won't wear that crown." Slade took to the fire and stood before it. Arms outstretched as the man looked at his dear servant.

"I Will be the one to take it from his weathered skull. From the Demon's Head."

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The fire flickered, and the boy looked before it. The General put his hands behind his back, legs still splayed out as his dominant self knew no end. "Well? If you show me how loyal you can be, since Wayne is again branded an enemy of –

"There has to be some conspiracy. Some foul play!" The boy rejected the idea of Bruce being so…criminal. "Blackmail, maybe?"

"He loved her, maybe he still has feelings for the serpent woman." Slade shrugged. "Boy, you have this opportunity to save dozens from being put to the slaughter."

"They are not cattle, General!" Richard shouted. "They are, beings with wishes of their own."

"YES, yet cattle can be traded and kept. Humans as simply vessels to carry them from harm? You have a choice. Save as many as you can, or let me do away with as many as you won't salvage. Won't Wayne be so very, upset…"

"Trickster…. gods be it….what about my title? They won't listen to some child at the stage. I can't be myself. What can I be then?" Richard breathed in; his lungs tight. "Robin is…-

"There will be a change." Slade promised. "You won't be yourself, true. You'll be what I have you as. Wintergreen as we speak is forging documents. This new role will be a mask; if you remove it, our goal will never come to pass."

"I have to act as your secretary." The boy sat upon the chair, his legs still hurting from being used as a footrest. "If I can't keep up the ruse?"

"You then risk our execution by the Court."

"Can they kill you." Richard found himself asking. "Can you die, if you cannot then?"

"In some ways, death to me is not swift." The General cryptically replied. "That did not answer my question." Said the young noble. "Can you seek death. Will the same become of you if I…"

The boy stopped. "I see."

Slade moved in to see the boy scrunch up his legs. "You want to know about my immortality. I could teach it to you." Smiled the false king. "You seem worthy enough to gain my dose if you were…loyal to our contract. My children already have." Slade told the son of Wayne.

"They were granted my blood, and it changed them."

Still dumbstruck, Richard thought about it. He'd save Korina and the Court would not be able to touch him once his presence was masked from the world. "I'll do it. To save as many as I can. But not to help you rule, because one day." Richard rose as Slade still made him feel shortest of his goal.

"One day, that crown will not just be left atop my head. This world, will be saved at long last by the people who cherish it."

"Deal, and I wish you the best of luck. King maker." Slade held out a hand. A deal, to shake on it. Richard took the hand, the skin of it feeling warmer than his claims own.

"How can I fool this face. It yearns to realize that this war isn't about Wayne, boy. But your brother. His true heir to the Wayne family line."

Richard was released as Slade grinned at his dashed pride.

"And, your brother is to be the end of all mortal gods."

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